The present invention relates to a wheel support for trailer axles and has tapered-roller bearings disposed on an axle neck, and also has a hub that is rotatably mounted on the tapered-roller bearings, with the hub serving for the mounting of a brake drum and a wheel, whereby a thrust washer is disposed between the axle neck and an inner one of the tapered-roller bearings, and whereby outwardly of an outer one of the tapered-roller bearings, an axle nut is screwed onto an outer thread of the axle neck.
The wheel supports for trailer axles must be constructed in such a way that the hub, with the brake drum secured thereto, can be withdrawn from the axle neck in order to service the brake, for example to replace the brake linings. If, after removing the axle nut, a conventional wheel support having a one-piece hub is removed from the axle neck, the two tapered-roller bearings and the thrust washer, as well as various seals, must be separately removed from the hub and must subsequently again be reassembled. In addition, it is necessary to replace the grease filling of the wheel support. In order to avoid this cumbersome and complicated manner of operation, U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,992 discloses a wheel support where the hub comprises an inner hub on which is fixedly secured an outer hub that, however, together with the brake drum that is secured thereon, can be removed from the inner hub, while the inner hub, with the axle nut, the tapered-roller bearings, and the thrust washer, remains on the axle neck. Unfortunately, this known wheel support with its double-hub construction is very expensive and complicated to produce if it is to function satisfactorily and not present any safety risks.
DE-AS 25 05 081 discloses an arrangement for supporting or mounting a vehicle wheel and includes an outer support portion that is provided with a mounting hole, and also includes an inner support portion that is mounted in the mounting hole via a roller bearing and contains the axle journals, whereby one support portion is connected to the vehicle wheel and the other support portion is connected with wheel-guide members that are connected to the vehicle body. The outer ring of the roller bearing is fixed in the mounting hole of the outer support portion with the aid of two snap rings. With this heretofore known arrangement, disassembly of the hub and the roller bearing is possible only with great effort.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a wheel support that has a straightforward construction and a one-piece hub, with the hub, along with inserted tapered-roller bearings, thrust washer, and axle nut, being preassembled and being mounted on the axle neck as a unit, and also being adapted to be removed as a unit.